The
"Men's Movements"

This is an attempt to look at the men's movement, and some of its
major issues over the past 30 plus years, through books. Included is
a critique that reviews what each of the four major segments can
learn from the other. I have also included several books that are
Out-Of-Print (OOP), because of their inportance to the understanding
of that movement. They can often be found at used bookstores.

This information has been garnered from a review of over 3,500
books published since 1958 covering more than 100 men's issues. This
information was gathered from three main sources: the rather
extensive library at The National Men's Resource Center and two
bibliographies, one put together by the Men's Studies Task Group of
the National Organization for Men Against Sexism and the other a book
titled "Men's Studies: A Selected and Annotated Interdisciplinary
Bibliography" by Eugene August, published in 1985 and updated in
1994.

Early writings in the men's movement often centered around the
male condition and were supportive of or a reaction to the women's
liberation movement at a time when many men were caught between
traditional roles as men and the newer expectations. The political
activism that grew from this work formed two major segments -
pro-feminist and men's rights.

Men's/Father's
Rights

This group is best represented by the National Congress for Men,
which was founded in 1981 as a coalition of several hundred fathers
and men's rights groups around the nation. Of any of the men's
movements to date, the father's rights segment potentially carries
much the same energy that the women's movement has maintain, though
centered around injusticies in our societies exclusion of men from
the household (except as provider), and as "visitor" upon divorce.
The difference is that most men don't experience this injustice until
after the divorce, so the movement builds on "after the fact" energy,
and even here, once men solve their current problems, many go back to
business as usual, taking away the energy needed by the movement to
actuate desired reform. This group could learn from Recovery about
their addiction to anger, and from the Pro-Feminists regarding a
wider perspective on human rights. (See also Books
and Periodicals.)

Herb Goldberg's books reflect his personal shift in perspective
and often speak to this movement, while Warren Farrell made a shift
from the pro-feminist segment to a more Men's Rights stance with his
1986 offering The Manipulated Man, Ester Vilar, 1972 OOP
The Hazards of Being Male, Herb Goldberg 1977 The Other
Side of the Coin, Roy Schenk, 1982 The Myth of the Monsterous
Male & Other Feminist Fables, John Gordon, 1982, Men
Freeing Men, anthology ed Francis Baumli, 1985, Why Men Are
the Way They Are, Warren Farrell, 1988.

Men's Recovery

While recovery programs have been around for many years and have
large representations of men in them, they, too, have seen themselves
as holding no real political stance. While addictions are used to
repress the expression of feelings, because of the a-political nature
of the recovery movement, it's not always clear for the need to
change part of the larger system to allow expression of feelings
outside of 12-step meetings. Millions of men have joined mixed and
men's only recovery groups on about every addiction you can think of,
and have just started to bridge across to other facits of the men's
movement for the feeling part. These other facets hold an outlet,
experience and understanding of the part feelings play in our lives,
how men are set-up in this culture and how to find ways to free the
feelings more on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis.

For starters, I would recommend that every man, whether in
rocovery or not, read and digest Merle Fossum's Men
in Rocovery, Finding our Direction previously titled
Catching Fire: Men Coming Alive in Recovery followed by The
Trickster, Magician & Grieving Man: Reconnecting Men with
Earth, by Glen Mazis. (See also Books
and Periodicals.)

Mythopoetic

As men's political activism continued through the late 70's and early
80's, a third segment of loosely connected men began to form what
Shepherd Bliss termed the "Mythopoetic" side of the men's movement.
This segment concentrates on looking at the male situation through
myths and poetry. This segment tends to focus on the man's individual
life, and has yet to make the political statements required to change
how these men experience the world outside a men's drumming circle.
The emphasis on men's only space, while positive in the short-term to
work with mutual issues in a safe space, lacks the larger perspective
of the community at large where the men must rejoin the others in
this world. They can learn from pro-feminists that by having the
intention of periodically opening the "men's space" to women, it
dispells the old systems of exclusion that no longer serves women or
men.

This group is best represented by the National Organization for Men
Against Sexism (NOMAS). While officially forming in 1982, the group
dates back to 1975 when some of the core activists organized the
first National Conference on Men & Masculinity. This group
concentrates primarily on the issues of the power and privilege men
have over others and strongly encourages men to make the personal
political, to change the larger community for the good of all. While
originally springing up from men's consciouness raising groups who
were very involved with their feelings, it seems a more recent
direction is even more activist, which tends to draw away from
feelings other than anger. The best thing members of this movement
could do is to explore recovery, concentrating on the personal issues
that drew them in the first place. Seeing this connection will
probably cause a re-direction of their individual political work
towards healthier solutions. They could also learn from Men's Rights
and hear the pain the unjust legal and social system causes men, as
well as women and children.

While there were some good books written before 1971, the basic
primers for this group were: Unbecoming Men, anthology, 1971;
A Male Guide to Women's Liberation, Gene Marine, 1972/1974;
Men & Masculinity, Joseph Pleck & Jack Sawyer, 1974
OOP; The Forty-Nine Percent Majority: The Male Sex Role,
Deborah David & Robert Brannon, 1976; The Male Machine,
Marc Fasteau, 1976; For Men Against Sexism, anthology 1977;
The Myth of Masculinity, Joseph Pleck, 1981; A Mensch Among
Men, Harry Brod, 1988; Refusing to Be a Man, John
Stoltenberg, 1989. (See also Books
and Periodicals.)

Promise
Keepers

The Promise Keepers boast over a million men as members. What is more
interesting is that they are coming together as fathers. It was
started by University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney in
1991. An evangelical Christian, he finds that "We are seeing...a huge
hunger among men who want to learn to live successfully in today's
world." Promise Keepers offers these men a chance to recommit
themselves not just to Jesus, but to their families as well.
McCartney stresses cooperation, responsibility and even an openness
to minorities and homosexuals. Wall St Journal

The success of the Promise Keepers program, at least for now,
cannot be denied. McCartney was out-drawing The Rolling Stones,
though those days have passed. The thing I find most interesting is
the reaction once again with activists trying to destroy anything
that smacks of "men's growth". "They don't allow women." Neither do
many women's events and festivals. I don't know anyone who feels
women will share and open up at the same level in mixed company as
they do with their own sex. So, why should we expect men to be more
vunerable? Seems just another way to control men. "They preach
dominance over women." While the gatherings are primarily made up of
men from fundamentalist Christian families that already following
certain teachings, it's the religious teachings, the churches and the
men and women in those sects that should be receiving the criticism.
From women writers who posed as men to get in, to many others who've
been inside, this is not a major point. The major point is to
re-commit to the family through promises that you will be held
accountable for by other men. For more information about Promise
Keepers, call Brian Yeager, the National volunteer coordinator at
303.456.7276. (See also Books
and Periodicals.)

* * *
Abe Lincoln said, "The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him
your friend." Any takers?